Daniel
is in term of positions, not bytes

Luca

On Apr 12, 2011, at 5:43 PM, Daniel Aschwanden wrote:

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> Hi all,
> 
> Just another small question about the hash size of nprobe:
> 
> Is this size in terms of "buckets" (positions) or in terms of bytes/bits?
> 
> It would be just good to know to do some basic consideration.
> 
> Regards,
> Daniel
> 
>> Hi all,
>> let me explain this in detail.
>> 
>> A hash is a contiguous array of list pointers. Incoming flows are hashed 
>> (using 
>> the 5 tuples) and the obtained hash_id value is used to identify the array 
>> index. As hashes are a way to "compress" information, it might happen that 
>> two 
>> different flows have the same hash_id, thus the list pointer is used to 
>> maintain a list of "collisions". With -w you set the array size, whereas the 
>> list size can be as long as necessary. This said, in order to set an upper 
>> limit, nprobe via 
>> 
>> [--max-num-flows|-M] <max num flows>| Limit the number of active flows
>> 
>> defines the max number of flows it can handle
>> 
>> This said, you must choose -w according to the number of flows you expect to 
>> have in your network. The value must be a good compromise between number of 
>> flows and memory usage. We suggest to set it to twice the expected number of 
>> concurrent flows, but as I have explained it, in case of large flow number, 
>> you 
>> won't drop flows (except you will specify a low value for -M) but just have 
>> a 
>> slower probe as it has to maintain long collision lists. If you start nprobe 
>> with "-b 1" you can see some stats like
>> 
>> 13/Mar/2011 11:30:13 [nprobe.c:1475] Flow Buckets: 
>> [active=11401][allocated=11401][toBeExported=0][frags=0]
>> 13/Mar/2011 11:30:13 [nprobe.c:1511] Processed packets: 24834 (max bucket 
>> search: 3)
>> 
>> In this case nProbe says that
>> 1. your flow cache has 11401 entries (= flows)
>> 2. the longest collision list is 3 that's still acceptable. If you exceed 8, 
>> you better use a bigger value for -w next time you start nProbe.
>> 
>> I hope I have clarified the details.
>> 
>> Regards Luca
>> 
>> On Mar 10, 2011, at 11:31 AM, Maurizio Molina wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 10.03.2011 11:16, Yuri Francalacci wrote:
>>>> Daniel
>>>> the meaning of "hash size is static" means that once you decide its size,
>>>> this size is fixed.
>>>> The meaning of "tunable" means that is the default hash size does not fit
>>>> your requirements (due traffic conditions),
>>> 
>>> and how can you realize that you run into that condition? I mean, will 
>>> nprobe 
>>> log somewhere flow accounting losses due to a too small hash size?
>>> Thanks,
>>> Maurizio
>>> 
>>> you can choose to set the size
>>>> you prefer/need, but this allocation is done up on nprobe statup.
>>>> Regards, Yuri
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:12:15 +0100, Daniel Aschwanden<[email protected]>  wrote:
>>>>> Ciao Luca and community,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I have a question about the allocation of the hash in nProbe.
>>>>> 
>>>>> On page 28 of your documentation (section 2.4 Tuning nProbe
>>>>> Performance), you state that the hash size is static, but on the
>>>>> footnote you mention that the hash "can grow as needed according to
>>>>> traffic". Does this mean that one have to set the -w flag according to
>>>>> the traffic (which makes sense) or does nProbe grow his hash according
>>>>> to traffic?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Sorry about this fuzzy question, but in my eyes the footnote contradicts
>>>>> the statement of static allocation.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks a lot for your clarification.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Cheers
>>>>> 
>>>>> Dani
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Ntop-misc mailing list
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>>>> 
>>> 
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>> ---
>> Due to lack of interest, tomorrow is cancelled - Kaiser Chiefs
>> 
>> 
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> 
> - -- 
> daniel aschwanden
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> 
> open systems ag
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